The enzyme alcohol oxidase is capable of promoting a large number of enzymatic conversions, e.g. the oxidation of primary alcohols to aldehydes. Due to the ready availability of alcohol oxidase and the essentially stoichiometric nature of the conversions promoted by alcohol oxidase, the enzyme has come into increased usage for analytical purposes. However, one problem encountered when using alcohol oxidase in some analytical procedures is the loss of enzyme activity when the enzyme is subjected to a variety of storage and/or handling conditions. Such loss in enzyme activity increases the amount of enzyme required for a given application and reduces the reliability of the analysis in which the enzyme is employed.
Frequently, it is desired to store substantial quantities of alcohol oxidase in order to facilitate carrying out numerous analytical procedures. A convenient form in which to store desired quantities of alcohol oxidase would be to provide the alcohol oxidase as a dry powder or film. Unfortunately, it is commonly observed that the enzyme activity of alcohol oxidase stored as a dry powder or film is reduced substantially with time. In addition, the actual process of forming such dry powder or film, i.e., by removing water from an alcohol oxidase solution, can also cause substantial losses in enzyme activity.